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Sure sure sure... Just saying, if dems want to win elections, they'll have to become better listeners than you are.

Sure sure sure... Just saying, if dems want to win elections, they'll have to become better listeners than you are.

The issue isn't that the Dems aren't 'listening' to the people of the region.

National-level Democrats have been losing Appalachia for years, primarily because candidates often don’t know how to communicate their economic message to the region’s poor, largely white denizens — or simply don’t feel they should have to.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Democrats can win back the once strongly left-leaning region, but only if they’re willing to grapple seriously with the area’s difficult economic present — and work to invite them into a very different future.

Appalachia’s ties to the Democratic Party go back decades — especially in West Virginia, which only voted for a Republican presidential candidate twice from 1960 to 2000 (it went red in 1972 and 1984, elections where the Republican candidate carried 49 out of 50 states). The state has also voted for a Democratic Senator every year since 1960, and consistently elected Democratic House members until 2010.

For example, Floyd county — an Appalachian coal county in Eastern Kentucky that voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004 — boasted 27,789 registered Democrats in 2008, compared to just 2,856 Republicans. Yet John McCain edged out Obama there on Election Day that year, winning 7,741 votes to 7,530. By 2012, it wasn’t even close: Mitt Romney brought home 9,784 votes there in 2012, but only 4,733 supported Obama.

The decline of coal is a constant point of political debate in Appalachia, where several counties still base their economies around excavating the coveted fossil fuel. It is true — as much as Democrats and environmentalists avoid saying it — that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations have hurt the coal industry over the years, giving an edge to cleaner forms of energy such as natural gas. But the industry was hemorrhaging jobs long before Obama became president, and equally to blame are things such as the aforementioned mechanization of the industry, the fact that Appalachia’s coal seams may be drying up, and a worldwide decline in demand for coal, among other things.

Meanwhile, federal GOP lawmakers have actively denied the president the opportunity to offer help to the region, blocking his Appalachian aid package from even receiving a vote in Congress.

“The Republicans have done a good job of marketing the so-called ‘war on coal,’ when in fact it’s the Democrats who have worked just as hard as anyone to diversify the economy and help bring jobs to Appalachia,” Lowry said.

Even progressives in the region are susceptible to “war on coal” rhetoric, however, and are slowly forging a new kind of Democrat. In May, West Virginia Democrats selected climate change-denier and coal industry billionaire Jim Justice as their nominee for governor — receiving Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) endorsement even though he was a Republican until 2015.

When asked about the coal industry, Justice assured reporters that he will make sure the state “mines more coal … than has ever been mined before.”

When the phrase “ideological purity” is used in a question during an interview with him, Mudcat scoffs.

“Politics aren’t about intellectual ideas, they’re about visceral feelings,” he said. “If the message is not in line with visceral concerns, it’s not going to work. Coal doesn’t account for all the jobs in West Virginia, but it’s the culture. Anybody attempting to attack coal or that they don’t feel is sympathetic to coal ain’t gonna make it.”

Deskins said he believes Democrats can turn healthcare and Medicaid into winning issues that will outweigh those other concerns.

“Democrats should be running on their own wedge issues and saying look, the Republicans want to take Medicaid away from your family, from your neighbors, from your friends,” Deskins said. “If you’re here in Appalachia and say you don’t know someone covered by Medicaid, that’s not true. Democrats should be using that issue like a damn cudgel and beating Republicans with it in 2018.”

Voters don’t always have coherent public policy views, and even when they do, they don’t always vote based on that. It’s not the details of public policy that win voters; it’s appealing to their gut.

“Frankly I think there’s less the Democrats could do to move the needle than there is that Republicans could do to help them move it,” said western Virginia Del. Greg Habeeb of Salem. “Let’s say we get eight years of Trump and it’s a total unmitigated disaster for western Virginia. At that point you’re not running saying, ‘I’ve got this complicated Democratic position on government services.’ You run saying, ‘They suck, vote for me.’”

That may give Sanders supporters a glimmer of hope.

“It’s a lot easier to win by simply being anti-establishment than it is to win on the basis of detailed left-leaning economic policy proposals,” Crichlow said. “Much of this country has a generations-long entrenched antipathy toward those. But that said, with the right candidate and the right message — maybe simply call for raising the minimum wage, versus a raise to $15 — and in the right environment…sure, why not? Ken Hechler politics was very popular here once. It could rise again.”

Also, they voted for someone who said that had a plan to move forward. They consistently vote for those people.

Disdain? No, that's way too much. You don't show contempt to these people, at least not if you want to ultimately help them.

You're talking about welfare fraud and disability fraud as if it's some huge epidemic....it's not.

Ryan Zinke orders helicopter to get him to horseback ride with Mike Pence on time

You cannot look at this and tell me that the people of that region are not abusing the disability and welfare system.

Clinton haunted by coal country comment

In 2008, Hillary Clinton won the West Virginia primary in a landslide. The state isn't as welcoming to her this time around. When officials in Logan, West Virginia, were contacted last week about hosting Hillary Clinton for a local rally, it didn’t take long for them to respond with an answer: Hell no.

“Bill and Hillary Clinton are simply not welcome in our town,” they wrote in a letter to the office of Sen. Joe Manchin, whose office had inquired about the availability of local facilities. “Mrs. Clinton’s anti-coal messages are the last thing our suffering town needs at this point. The policies that have been championed by people like Mrs. Clinton have all but devastated our fair town, and honestly, enough is enough. We wish them the best in their campaign, however we again state they are not welcome on our city’s properties.”

Clinton said: “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Failure to communicate well isn't the equivalent of a failure to listen.

It's not about a failure to listen to the people of the region

it is an absolute failure to listen and to think about the right kind of message to use

But it's hardly a high-road approach.